koira putkessa makasi, The dog lay on the spear socket kasi naukui naulan tiessä. the cat whimpered in the nail's path

indicate

that what was used to fasten

the

spearhead was just

a

nail, It is therefore obvious that Ukon naula, "Ukko's nail", did not mean

Agricola's Ukko in the light of archaeology 133

Fig. 22. Early nails and nail holes, On the left a Bronze Age II period (ca. 1300-1100) dagger from Långnäs, Dragsfjärd; in the centre a II—III period a tongue-shaft (?) sword from Kasaberget, Kirkkonummi; to the right a spearpoint fastened by means of an iron nail from Malmsby, Pernaja, from about the beginning of the Christian era. National Museum, Helsinki. Photo: R. Bäckman, National Board of Antiquities.

just any kind of iron fastener or rivet. Nonetheless, from the dating of the name we have in any case some kind of ultimate date for Ukko's nail, namely the iron nails that were first used from the end of the

134 UNTO SALO

pre-Roman period onwards.

The thunderbolts of folk tradition are nevertheless linked with sharp-edged stone tools; this, from the point of view of the nail's function, was noted as illogical. The explanation is possibly to be found in cultural or linguistic history. According to the Roman writer Pliny (23-79) it was possible to make a spark from a flint by striking it with a key, clavis, or another flint. According to Feldhaus clavis appears in only one manuscript; in others it is written clavus, "nail", This must be a spelling error since a nail is too soft to create a spark and also unsuitable by reason of its shape, Keys, on the other hand, would have been fine for striking fire since their handles could be made hard enough to strike a blow with them, as is shown by the keys found in the Roman fortress at Saalburg near Mainz; with these it is still possible to strike fire even today. Fire steels proper have been found only rarely in the Roman area (Feldhaus 1914, 319).

From this we are led to ask whether the Ukko's nail of Finnish tradition can be explained on the basis of a mistake made by Pliny's scribes. Since thunderbolts originated from the striking of celestial fire, could the well-known name for the fire-striking implement from Latin be applied to it, translated into Finnish by the learned Latinists, of course? This might well be possible and so the riddle of the naula-thunderbolt would be solved, Ukko's nail was not, then, originally an attribute of Ukko?

There is, however, another explanation: alternative names for thun-derbolt include not only thunder nail but also Ukon kynsi, "thunder", (finger)nail, and it is here perhaps that the explanation for thunder nail lies, Old Swedish naghle 'nail', referred to as the possible origin of the Finnish naula, is derived from the Old Swedish word naghl, naghle

`finger or toenail' (llellquist 1980, 688). If the Finnish Ukon naula,

"thunder nail" is a translation loan, then it may be a question of a misunderstood translation from the Old Swedish nagle. When ancient runes speak of Ukon kynsi, ( Ukko's stone fingernail', by which was understood stone 'thunderbolt' it is possible that Ukon naula, 'thunder nail', meaning the same, came about as the result of a mistranslation, Ukko with his fingernails of stone, in turn, refers to the god of thunder in the form of a bird, which is discussed below.

Agricola's Ukko in the light of archaeology 135 The thunderbolt and Ukko's hammer

More important attributes of Ukko, however, are the thunderbolt and the hammer, and perhaps also the club, Thunderbolts in Finland, as is well known, refer to stone bolts. Equivalents to this term are known in the Germanic languages, as for example the Swedish dskkil and the German Donnerkeil (Harva 1948, 99; Vries 1956-57, 2, 125).

Since they correspond to the Greek keraunós, "lightning, thunder-bolt", which already appears in the Iliad, it might be a question of an early loan from the culture of antiquity. It is most probable, however, that it contains an original feature of the Indo-European thunder god, a reminder that his weapon was made of stone.

Such a concept could also be applied to stone chisels found on the ground after a period when they were no longer recognizable as having been made by man; in Finland this did not perhaps happen before iron began to be used, since stone blades for work purposes were manufactured to some extent at the end of the Bronze Age, as was the case in Baltic countries, too (Salo 1981, 96 ff,, 284 f.; Graudonis 1967, tab. II). Because of their wedge-shaped form they may be described as thunderbolts, perhaps after Scandinavian models, especially chisels;

they also form the majority of polished blades from the Stone Age and are common finds in Finland.

Only when, after the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age, shaft-hole axes were no longer made, and their original significance was forgotten, could the stone chisels be explained as wedges to replace them. From this, we assume that the thunderbolts in this sense are no older than the Iron Age. They thus go back, at the earliest, to a pre-Roman period, but perhaps only to the beginning of the new calender.

They are known from graves of the Iron Age, but most of them are apparently fortuitous finds, brought to the graves of the culture layer and thus, in this respect, without significance, It may be affirmed, on the other hand, that the name ukonvaaja (thunderbolt) is evidently a translation loan from the Swedish ei skkil or — less probably — the German Donnerkeil, so we are perhaps dealing with a loan from the west of an attribute particularly suitable for Ukko. As such, it cannot of course be precisely dated on the basis of Finnish material, but since the same principles for dating are valid for Scandinavia as well, the stage between the Bronze Age and the pre-Roman period may there, too, be the terminus post quem for the thunderbolt. At the same time, it is also the terminus post quem for the translation loan in question.

An older attribute than the stone thunderbolt was without doubt

136 UNTO SALO

Fig. 23. Thor, holding his ham-mer Mjölnir in his hand, fighting the Midgard serpent. After A. Ohl-marks. Runestone drawing, Altuna church, Uppland, Sweden. (Ohl-marks 1975).

the stone shaft-hole axe or hammer From these are derived the Scandinavian Thor's hammer (Fig. 23), Mjölnir, and the vajra of the Hindu Indra; Indra is known as hammer hand, vajrapani. The axe or hammer of the Lithuanian Perkunas is of the same origin, as is the hammer of Sucellus among the Celts or the hammer of the Saami Haragalles (Harva 1948, 92; Vries 1956-57, 2, 124 ff,; Haavio 1961, 30-36; Moreau 1958, 106 f,). On the other hand, the double-bladed axe placed in the hand of the Danubian Jupiter Dolichenus may have a different origin to that of the actual god (Harva 1948, 92 or 96 f.),

The history of battle axes

The battle axe with a hole, a weapon with a stone blade at one end and a long hammer at the other, is one of the leading types of the thousand year funnel-beaker culture (3300-2500/2300?); this culture extends westwards almost to the mouth of the Rhine, eastwards over the Vistula, southwards to Bohemia and the upper reaches of the Vistula, and northwards to Skåne, Sweden (Becker 1969, 1486 ff,; Jazdzewski

Agricola's Ukko in the light of archaeology 137 1965, 83--89). The fırst battle axes appeared in Danish finds at an early phase of the funnel-beaker culture (Jensen 1982, 118), according to uncalibrated dating perhaps from the end of the fourth millenium!

Their true period, however, dates from the beginning of the third mil-lenium. It is then that the widespread funnel-beaker culture in Central Europe, Denmark and Southern parts of Sweden produces many-edged hammeraxes (Fig, 24, 25) (Stenberger 1964, 64 f.; Brøndsted 1938-39, 1, 155 ff.); much later, i,e. ca. 1500-1200 B.C., hammeraxes of same shape also spread to the Central Volga and the Caucasus (Tallgren 1926, 114 ff,, 131 f., fig. 48 and 68, 6) during the second phase of the Bronze Age, according to Scandinavian chronology. Hammeraxes cannot be explained without assuming metal models. According to general opinion, they are an imitation of copper axes of a type known, for example, in Hungary; from there, one example seems to have

reached as far as Skåne (Fig. 24) (Stenberger 1964, 64 f.),

Battle axes were even more widely disseminated by the cord-ceramic or battle axe culture in the middle and at the end of the third millenia (according to uncalibrated chronology), From that period, character-istic boat-shaped axes or other forms (Fig. 27) are known from the Rhine to the Volga and the Dneiper, and from North of the Danube to Sweden, Norway, the Baltic countries and Finland (Fig. 26) (Buch-valdek 1969). In these objects one may readily observe signs of metal technique, although it has not been possible to demonstrate direct metal models; neither has it been possible to show that analogous Caucasian copper axes, known at least from the cord-ceramic graves of Dneiper-Desna and from Eastern Russia, are older than the stone ones (Sulimirski 1970, 190 ff.; Ailio 1909, 1, fig. 30). Battle axes, according to received opinion, were weapons and where graves are concerned, occur exclusively in finds from men's graves. Judging by

s In datings of the Finnish Stone Age, according to Ari Siiriäinen's chronology, uncalibrated values are used for C14 datings; in these, C14 datings have not been checked according to calibrated revised curves, and for this reason, uncalibrated values have also been used for Scandinavia and Central Europe. As an example of this, it may be pointed out that the beginning of the Swedish Bronze Age pushed back from the previously used estimate of ca. 1550 B.C. to a calibrated value of ca. 1800 B.C. The mid-neolithic period corresponding to the battle axe culture is similarly pushed back from ca. 2600 to 3300. Time estimates for Swedish cultures cannot be accurately transplanted to Finnish culture periods; it may be noted, for example, that the Finnish Bronze Age is not regarded as having begun until the latter half of the second phase of the Scandinavian Bronze culture, perhaps around 1400/1300. On the chronology of the Finnish Stone Age, see Siiriäinen 1969; Siiriäinen 1972; Siiriäinen 1973.

138 _{UNTO SALO}

Fig. 24. Above a southeast European (?) copper axe, probably found in Skåne, Sweden; below a battle axe reminiscent of copper axe models from Södermanland.

The axes date back or probably date back to the beginning of the 3rd millenium.

(Stenberger 1964).

Fig. 25. Map showing extent of Funnel Beaker culture. (Milisauskas 1973).

Agricola's Ukko in the light of archaeology 139

Fig. 26. The distribution of Corded Ware (Battle axe) culture. (Jaanits 1957).

their careful design and finishing, they also revealed the social status of the bearer. The nature of the culture itself is characterized by the fact that the leading types were men's weapons; there are no equivalent leading forms among the special objects of women.

The manufacture of stone shaft-hole axes remained extensive in the cord-ceramic area until the late Stone Age and the Bronze Age, i.e.

long into the period succeeding the battle axe culture; the term shaft-hole axe implies that the axes often lacked a separate and distinctive hammer, Shaft-hole axes are widely known from the Bronze Age in the Scandinavian countries, in Holland, the Northern and Cen-tral parts of Germany, Poland, Eastern Prussia, the Baltic countries and Finland (Fig, 28) (Glob 1938, 62; Kostrzewska 1953, 239-254;

Meinander 1954a, 76-85; Meinander 1954b, 67-84; Stenberger 1964, 132 ff.; Baudou 1960, 47 ff.; Graudonis 1967, 82 ff., 149; Löugas 1982, 132 ff.). The majority of these belong to the late Bronze Age, and the circumstances of some of the finds (Denmark, Poland, Latvia) point towards the pre-Roman period. The use of battle axes and other

140 UNTO SALO

shaft-hole axes which succeeded them thus continues from the end of the fourth millenium until ca. 500/400 B.C. In addition to stone ones shaft-hole axes were manufactured in many areas from copper and bronze, too, These are in part like the simple stone forms, but more often decorative, provided for example with embossed or flattened hammers. They obviously include weapons, but at least some of them were manufactured for cultic use, judging from the great size, the weight, the shape or the slimness (e,g. Stenberger 1964, 173, 189, 193 f, 201, 286 f.).

Shaft-hole axes in Finland

The battle axes and the other shaft-hole axes spread to Finland, too. A Scandinavian many-edged hammer axe was discovered at the Hämeen-niemi settlement at Lapua, which dates from the end of the comb-ceramic period proper to the beginning of the late comb-comb-ceramic time, i,e. 3000-2600 B,C. (Ayräpää 1955; Siiriäinen 1972, 15 f.); it is among the oldest of Scandinavian objects introduced to Finland. An Eastern Russian hammer axe found at Kemijärvi may be dated to the latter half of the second millenium and thus seems to be at least a thousand years younger than the previous example (Huurre 1983, 198 f.).

Hammer axes like these are nevertheless exceptional in Finland, but all the greater historical importance attaches to the Finnish boat-shaped battle axes, since some 900 examples of them are known up to the present time (Fig. 27) (Edgren 1984a, 78). They brought to Finland a battle axe culture which spread south and west of a line formed by the Gulf of Viborg—Lahti—Tampere—Kokkola (2500-2000) (Ayräpää 1939; Edgren 1984a, 74-87). Tapering battle axes of an Estonian type and the flatter axes which evolved from them, together with Scandinavian forms, were also manufactured after this, during the Kiukais-culture (2000-1400/1200) (Soikkeli 1912; Meinander 1954a, 76-85). Scandinavian and southern shaft-hole axes were also imported and manufactured later, at least until the end of the Bronze Age (Fig. 28) (Meinander 1954b, 66-84), Shaft-hole axes of stone were thus used in Finland for a couple of thousand years.

Agricola's Ukko in the light of archaeology 141

Fig. 27. Battle-axes from the Satakunta Mu-seum collection.

Second from top the continental I-type; below it a Finnish II-type axe. Satakunta Museum.

Fig. 28. Bronze Age shaft-hole axes. Top left a five-sided axe from Harjavalta; the others are Scandinavian rhomb-shaped axes from Jepua, Kodisjoki, Peräseinäjoki and Närpiö. The last of these is almost certainly an import but the Kodisjoki axe is a poor imitation of a Scandinavian axe as can be seen from the hole made in it.

National Museum, Helsinki. Photo: R. Bäckman, National Board of Antiquities.

142 UNTO SALO

The sky god, the mother goddess and human society

The Ukko of the

ancient

Finns

was thus

the

god

of

thunder,

but

the

same time

a

general deity,

the

sky

god,

"at

the navel of the sky".

Ukko the

general deity is regarded, probably with some justification,

as

having been influenced by Christianity.

The

matter, however, is by

no

means self-evident,

as the Scandinavian Thor

was also

more a

general deity than

a

god

of

thunder during

the

Viking period — at least

in

myths — although his divinity with

regard

to thunder flourishes

in

popular belief

as a

kind

of

subflora

in the

garden

of

myth, It may

of course

be observed

in

this context that Thor's nature, too, could

have

been formed under

the influence of

Christianity,

but

philological evidence nevertheless suggests that

the concept of the

overall god was

far

older,

and

went right back to

the

proto-Indo-European period,

The

Indo-European tradition included

the

notion

of a male

deity, regarded

as

father, giver

of

light

and the

day,

and

— to some extent

—

as a

general deity, although not

the creator of the

world (Schwabl 1978, 1010 ff.; Wachsmuth 1964-75, 1516 ff.). Evidence

for

this may be found

in the

southern names

for the

gods

of the sky,

i,e.

Zeus,

"day, heaven",

Jupiter,

"father heaven",

and the dyauh of the

Veda scriptures, all

of

which

are of

proto-Indo-European origin, Equally old,

or

perhaps older, is

the

sky god's

consort and

fertility goddess, Ukko's wife, Demeter, Ceres

and Siv,

although this idea cannot be established

on the

basis

of

similarities

in

names,

The heavenly

couple,

in which the sky god/thunder god was clearly

dominant,

reflects

a

common conception

of

human society with

a

patriarchal family

structure.

Early neolithic communities

in

Southern

and South Eastern

Europe, however,

have

been

and

still

are

inter-preted

as

matriarchal.

In

this context, reference is made both to the prevalence

of

matriarchy

in

primitive agricultural societies,

and

the

sexually explicit female

figures,

idols known from,

the

Balkans

and

other

parts of

South-Eastern

Europe

from

the

fifth

millenium

onwards (Filip 1969, 754). Similar

concepts are

suggested by

the

Minoan

figures of

goddesses dating from

the

first half

of the second

millenium,

particularly when corresponding

figures of male

gods

do

not

occur. No

images

of

mother goddesses

are

known, however, from

the

neolithic

cultures of Central Europe and

Scandinavia (Nuřiez 1986, 17),

for

which reason

the

worship

of the

Magna Mater may not

have

been so

dominant

there.

The

areas north

of the Danube

would thus seem to

have

provided greater potential

for the

emergence

of a

paternal sky deity.

Agricola's Ukko in the light of archaeology 143 Among the established features of male dominance are the ham-mer axes of the funnel-beaker culture. The patriarchal structure of society is reflected even more clearly in finds from the battle axe culture: men's weapons, battle axes, are central to the culture, whilst equivalent general forms do not occur among women's objects, as was previously pointed out. It is perhaps also symptomatic that, in the initial stages of the culture, men in graves from Central Europe and Denmark were often placed on their right hand side and women — in a nıirror image — on their left (Buchvaldek 1969; Brøndsted 1961-62, 1, 254 f.). In the history of semantics it may be observed that the German languages and Finnish, for example, regard "right" -in relation to "left" — as mean-ing "better, morally irreproachable, straight". Thus the emergence or dominance of a sky father would appear to correspond to the social structure north of the Danube, in Central Europe and Southern Scandinavia, at the end of the fourth and throughout the third millenium. Further evidence for tracing the notion back as far as the third millenium, at least, is the fact that Zeus — supposedly of proto-Indo-European origin — must have been brought to Greece by the Acheans round about 2300-1900 B.C,;

the name of Zeus is found at Knossos in about 1400 B,C. and at Pylos in about 1200 B,C. (Hiller 1978, 1001-1009). For these reasons, I presume that the Indo-European sky god originated, or at least acquired his dominant position, at the end of the fourth millenium and during the third millenium in the funnel-beaker and battle axe cultures of Central and Northern Europe, i.e, in an area extending roughly from the Rhine to the Vistula and the Dneiper, and from the Danube to Scandinavia and perhaps even to Finland. This is also suggested by the Jupiter Lapis in Rome and Zeus Keraunios in Greece. This is not to say, that the anthropomorphic sky-god should be original or fırst-born in Europe; considering the similar semitic or other weather-gods in the Near East I will leave the question open,

In document in the (sivua 41-58)